


burning up like a fever

by SafelyCapricious



Series: things you find in a graveyard [7]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Post-Canon, F/M, Pining
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-08
Updated: 2019-10-08
Packaged: 2020-11-27 09:16:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20945945
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SafelyCapricious/pseuds/SafelyCapricious
Summary: Katara gets in late, the nearly full moon high in the sky and easily lighting her way.She might rise with the moon, but she’d taken over guiding their vessel and though it was easy and soothing at the time she is tired.She wakes up to giggling.





	burning up like a fever

**Author's Note:**

> Title generated by the [Hozier random fanfic title generator](http://www.generatorland.com/usergenerator.aspx?id=22501) because I just love that someone made a fic title generator and I'm going to abuse the snot out of it. Someone should definitely make more of those with different artists, I'm just saying, help me and my inability to come up with fic titles on my ownnnnn!
> 
> This is part of my attempt at fictober. Day, holy shit I haven't failed yet, seven! 
> 
> Sommme of this may have been posted as a drabble on tumblr before, but my records are crap so I'm not sure. I def. wrote quite a bit more though, so I hope ya'll enjoy.

Katara gets in late, the nearly full moon high in the sky and easily lighting her way. It takes her nearly fifteen minutes to convince the steward – Liu? Lee? She really should know this, he was hired within Zuko’s first year of reigning and has been dealing with the ambassadors pretty exclusively – that he shouldn’t wake the Fire Lord and instead should just let her go to bed. 

She might rise with the moon, but she’d taken over guiding their vessel and though it was easy and soothing at the time she is _tired_. 

She wakes up to giggling. 

It takes a moment to convince her eyes to crack open, and when they do she’s still surrounded by blissful darkness. Which makes the giggling more concerning, somehow, until she remembers that she’s in the palace and all the beds have their own curtain things. (She only debates pulling a pillow over her head and going back to sleep for a moment.)

By the time she’s managed to fight her way out of her extremely comfortable bed, her maids are still giggling. (She’s pleased to see they’re the same as her last three visits – the ones before that tried to bathe her and if there is one thing a Water Bending master doesn’t need help with, it’s bathing.) 

They don’t turn when she grabs the soft robe off of the settee and joins them – they’re pressed up against the wide windows that show the small garden courtyard area this room shares with a few others. She’s been getting the same room since she started being the Ambassador for the water nation.

She’s not terribly shocked when she sees what they’re giggling at. 

Even having traveled with him and seen his morning routine numerous times, it is still breathtaking. She doesn’t immediately recognize the moves he’s going through until he turns slightly – his eyes are closed in concentration – and she realizes he’s changed the Dancing Dragon to be suitable for one person. 

Her maids giggle again and she’s considering teasing them or him, when he turns fully and she finds her gaze fixed on the center of his chest. 

She hasn’t seen him shirtless since that night he – that they –

She should’ve done a better job healing it. 

The mark on his chest is still angry and red, even so long after and he got it protecting her and – 

She’s pushing open the wide glass door before her brain has completely caught up with her actions, but she’s never been one to hesitate so even though his eyes are still closed it doesn’t stop her. She’s in his personal space, knowing the sway of the Dancing Dragon even with his changes – she had to watch him and Aang perform it what felt like a million times in their training – and following along. 

His good eye slits open and he offers her a small curl of his lips before going back to his motions. She moves along, eyes drifting from his face down to the center of his chest. It looks just as angry close up, small spiderwebs of lightning scar stretching from that first hit and –

He freezes when her hand lands squarely on it and she can feel the weight of his gaze even though she’s not looking up. Water is making it’s way from her room to her palm as she tries to work through the scar tissue and – 

“It hurts, doesn’t it?” 

His shrug is careful, just enough to express his feelings without jarring her hand or her concentration. “Aches, sometimes, but it’s fine.” 

She lets her water move through his skin and scowls up at him. “You should’ve told me.” 

His smile is bright and she’s terribly aware of how much heat he’s radiating – she’s not sure if it’s some firebending technique or if it’s simply exertion, or perhaps simply _him_, but it makes her want to shed her clothes which – well, the maids are already getting a show, but that would be a bit much. “I’m fine, Katara.” 

She pokes his chest with her other hand, still working on unknotting scar tissue. “You got it for me, I’m not going to let it hurt you.” 

His hand captures hers and she loses control of her water for just a moment, leaving streaks against the waistband of his pants before she has it back where it should be. “It was worth it, and I’m fine.” He squeezes her hand and releases, stepping back so she can’t keep working on it. “Spar with me?” 

She lets out a huff of breath and starts to stretch lightly. “This isn’t over — I’m giving you a full examination when I’m here now, you realize.” 

He makes a face (she’s still relieved he hasn’t gotten much better at keeping his court mask around her, he slips into it sometimes and it’s just so blank — she doesn’t like it.) She can see he’s going to be troublesome about this – that’s fine, if she wins she can pin him and work on examining the damage more. 

Probably thinking about pinning him is a bad idea. She pushes the thought and her robe off, clad now in only her wrappings, and grounds herself – using the earth bending stance Toph has been teaching her. “Alright, Fire Lord, lets go.” 

He grins, looking younger than he has since he ascended the throne, and comes towards her in a flurry of sparks and smoke. 

***

Katara covers her face and slowly sinks below the surface of the water in her bath. The water is, naturally, steaming and so her blushing face feels right at home. 

The only blessing, she thinks, as she gazes up sightlessly though the water, is that Zuko is definitely still oblivious. It’s a smaller comfort that it used to be, since Katara is now fairly positive that literally all of his advisors have cottoned onto her crush at this point — but it is still a comfort. 

(He wouldn’t be Zuko if he wasn’t a little oblivious, after all.)

Then she remembers that her _brother_ has figured it out and decides she probably never has to leave the bath. 

Her brain haunts her with the memory of her brother’s realization — and the looks on the faces of the Fire Nation advisors when they’d found her straddling their Fire Lord in the courtyard so she could heal his chest. 

Which, probably wouldn’t have phased them if she hadn’t then proceeded to flush bright red, babble what she was doing, and try to get off him so quickly that she’d fallen backwards into the turtleduck pond. 

And then of course, when she’d gotten out Zuko had offered to dry her off and — 

She’s pretty sure the heat of her blush is now increasing the temperature in the bath, and she groans and covers her face again. 

She’s an ambassador, she’s a master bender, she is the Avatar’s teacher and…she’s never leaving this tub again. 

It’s almost better to dwell on when Sokka had figured it out — and that was awful too, but at least slightly less mortifying. 

Katara, Toph and Suki had been cheerfully discussing the upcoming wedding over breakfast when Sokka burst in — and considering how cheerful he’d been (about the wedding, of course!) up until that point, his clear displeasure is a little concerning. 

“What is _this_?” he’d demanded, slapping a newspaper down on the table. Of course, he’d left his hand in the middle of it, so all Katara could see at first was that it was a paper from the Fire Nation — which was really uplifting to see, to be honest. Here they were, deep in the Earth Kingdom, and they were starting to get papers from all over. 

Obviously no one responded, so he picked up the paper, shook it, and shoved it in Toph’s face. Which was, obviously, going to be hilarious except that Katara was close enough to see what had probably caught her brother’s eye and she couldn’t help but sigh. 

“Well?” Sokka had demanded, voice shrill, even as Toph had snatched the paper out of his hands and smoothed it down. 

She proceeded to stare at it for a long moment before looking up and blinking, “Wow, is this true?” and Katara couldn’t help but roll her eyes. 

“It better not be!” Sokka had exclaimed, still too caught up to realize what’s happening.

Suki had sighed, taken pity on her fiancé, and pulled the paper away from Toph to examine it. Her eyebrows had shot up and she turned to look at Katara, back at the picture, then she made the logical leap that Sokka had missed and turned her attention to Sokka with an exasperated expression. 

“Sokka,” Katara had said, trying for calm as best she could, “how many times have you seen me in the last, oh, five years?” 

He blinked, derailed, and said, “Oh, I dunno, a lot?” 

She rubbed the bridge of her nose. “Then explain to me how you think that I could _possibly_ have hidden a five year old child from you. Not even the child itself, just the pregnancy. Think about it.”

Suki had handed the paper to Katara, and she’d smoothed it out. It showed an article about rebuilding in the Fire Nation, specifically about some of the orphanages that had been popping up to help war orphans (most of whom were of mixed heritage). The photo is from when Katara had visited one, with Zuko, and met the sweetest little girl named Jun with a water tribe complexion and Fire Nation eyes. The photo only showed Katara and Jun, however. 

Which made the conclusion that Sokka had leaped to all the more ridiculous. Except that when Katara had asked “Who did you think I would even —“ and Sokka had glanced pointedly towards the room Zuko was staying it — Katara’s face had flamed and she’d lunged across the table to get at her brother and tea-bent at him and —

Perhaps it had been the overreaction that had given her away.Or perhaps it had been how Toph had loudly pronounced she was lying when she’d tried to deny any interest and — 

She supposes, still under the water, even though it’s started to cool, she should just be thankful no one had acted oddly or given away the secret at the wedding. 

Not that they’d needed to — clearly she was good at sabotaging herself. 

There’s someone looking into the bathwater, and she can’t make out features, but it’s probably one of her maids and they’re probably starting to get worried and — 

Katara resigns herself to the truth of the world, that she can’t hide in the bath for the rest of her life. 

She’s got work to do, anyways. 

***

“I liked your new moves,” Zuko says, as he passes her a cup of tea. 

Katara would never insult him by not taking it but — the urge is strong. This is not technically work — she’d done her job as an ambassador earlier, in meetings and even over dinner, and this is just them sharing tea and looking over the firebugs that sparkle over the garden. But sharing tea _is _traditional and it would be rude to refuse. 

Even if his tea is atrocious. 

She takes a deep breath, tries to center herself, and takes a sip — then she takes another sip in surprise. She glances to her side and finds that he’s turned his head to watch her, small smile pulling at his lips. “It’s good,” she says, too shocked to pretend like she’s not surprised. 

His smile widens into that crooked grin that makes her feel like someone’s trying to blood bend her. “I’ve been practicing.” He turns away and she can see his ear is turning red, the light of the full moon more than enough for her to see every detail of him clearly. “Uncle says it still needs work.”

His uncle is right, of course, but with how low her expectations about the tea were — she’s not even tempted to tea-bend this into a plant. Which is good, because she’s pretty sure the gardeners have caught onto what she’s doing and are not terribly happy with her, if their glowers at her are any indication. 

“It’s good,” she repeats, and lays her hand on his arm because….because positive reinforcement is good.

And also she just wants to touch him and it’s a good excuse. 

She wraps both hands around her cup so she doesn’t do something more foolish. 

“Thanks,” he says, glancing at her, smile softening. 

She decides to stare fixedly up at the moon. “Toph has been trying to teach me some Earth bending stances,” she says, so she doesn’t say something more foolish. 

He chuckles and rubs at his chest. “That explains it, felt like there was more force behind it.” And she finds herself frowning at him. 

“Is it hurting you?” she demands, putting her cup down and pushing his shoulder, concern overriding her need not to embarrass herself more. 

He blinks at her, “No, Katara, I’m fine don’t —“ 

And of course she’s not going to believe him, so she pushes at his tunic and he’s trying to stop her and — they tumble off the low step and she finds her cheek pressed against the scar tissue on his chest and, “Ow,” he says, laughter in his voice. 

“Shut up,” she says, and pokes his cheek, before bending water from the pond so she can find where she left bruises earlier. She’s gotten so good at healing her own injuries in a bath, and she’s been with Toph a lot recently who often joins her and gets healed that way — not that she ever admits she’s been hurt — that she forgets others can’t do it and — she hisses between her teeth when she finds a painful bone bruise. 

“Katara,” he says, and she ignores him, catching the hand he brings up to stop her with her free hand even if it shifts her weight on him and — his blood is moving erratically and she wonders if she should be worried with how quickly his heart is going, but it makes it easier to soothe and remove the bruise and — 

“Katara,” he says again, and she continues to ignore him. He’s not struggling as much as he was earlier, so she takes the time to start to work on the scar tissue on his chest as well — she’s fairly sure she’s not going to be able to get rid of the mark, but she can at least make it more superficial and — 

“I’m going to kiss you,” he says, and that gets her attention and the water that was coating her hand is suddenly just coating him and he’s peering up at her and she’s much closer to his face then she realized and he looks worried, “unless you don’t want me to?” 

“Oh,” she says, and now her heart is pounding as hard and his, and she shifts and — “Oh,” she says again, as he hisses and she blinks and bites her bottom lip and considers. “You want to kiss me?” 

And his hands feel like they’re just about burning up the silk at her hips and he laughs, low and husky. “Only since forever.” 

“Oh,” she says again, and she feels stupid for repeating herself but she doesn’t know what else to say and — so instead of trying to say anything else she just leans down and kisses him. 

Later, when their tea is bitter, over-steeped and cold, and they’re both languid and happy, she leans against him and snickers. “What?” he asks, warily, and she snickers again. 

“I thought you rose with the sun, but I’m pretty sure that’s a moon out there so —“ and he turns and pins her to the ground and kisses her even as she continues to laugh.

**Author's Note:**

> If you wanna talk to me, you should! You can find me here, [on tumblr](https://www.tumblr.com/blog/capriciouswrites), come yell at me about random things and help my will to continue to write fictober.
> 
> This is still probably not edited enough, and I totally put off finishing it so...yeah, it's not getting more edited. Enjoy! 
> 
> Thank you for reading and thank you extra if you take the time to let me know what you think! I hope you enjoyed! <3


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